Behind the glamour, the smiles and speeches on the occasion when Janet Museveni inspected the newly refurbished Nakivubo stadium, there were beatings and fights over money by journalists.
Multiple sources have told Bbeg Media that immediately after Janet Museveni left, hell broke loose after the pretense and play acting was thrown out of the window.
The Genesis
Everything had been organized meticulously by Kiggundu who wanted the First Lady and her delegation to get a good impression on her visit. Or so it seemed.
First, the businessman had procured the services of a senior journalist to help coordinate the media for this visit.
We have been told that Kiggundu had told the senior journalist to invite not more than six journalists. In the end, the two settled on nine. They had agreed that each of the nine journalists be paid Shs500,000 bringing the total media budget to Shs 4.5 million.
On the D-day, however, the number of journalists ballooned to 16. At first Kiggundu and the coordinator kept mum and concentrated on wowing Janet Museveni. They would return to the issue after the important guest had left.
Indeed a few minutes after Janet’s convoy had exited Nakivubo, the drama, or is it horror, started for some journalists.
First, the journalists were told to congregate near Kiggundu’s spacious offices on Ham Nakivubo Shopping Mall (they gathered on the floor which has several payment counters). Kiggundu, according to our sources, ordered that each of them be paid Shs 500,000 including the “flukers” and he left for other business.
But the media coordinator (a senior journalist whose name we are withholding) had other plans. He proceeded to read out the names of the nine invited journalists and motioned them to move to one side. The remaining seven were told to stand on the opposite side.
Then the beatings started. A group of bouncers proceeded to beat up the uninvited journalists some using electric wires (solido). They ran for their dear lives escaping through the shopping mall. But some were badly beaten.
One of the affected journalists told Bbeg Media that the situation was chaotic.
“We just ran and some of us bumped into people’s goods because we were trying to protect our lives and equipment,” said a reporter who was on the receiving end of the beating.
We have also been told that other journalists who were waiting outside the gate took off after learning about the predicament of their colleagues.
We have seen exchanges in a WhatsApp group for journalists, trading blame over what happened.
Our repeated calls to Kiggundu and his close associated went unanswered.
So what?
The incident raises several questions on the working conditions of journalists, about ethics and on the barbaric behaviour of the businessman’s security.
It is not secret that many journalists in Uganda are paid a slave wage, money barely enough to meet their basics. Besides, they are poorly facilitated leading them to make decisions that at times put their ethics into question.
Yet whatever the case, we believe there can never be any justification to rough up a poorly paid journalist. The best the businessman’s handlers could have done was to tell the journalists to leave without manhandling them.
And it is turning into a trend.
In 2017 NBS TV journalist Samson Kasumba was roughed up by goons aligned to the businessman as he was reporting about the demolition of Park Yard to create space for the construction of the shopping mall.
